Web-based Monitoring of Photovoltaic Systems

I have created an online monitoring system that can handle different, network-capable measurement equipment and needs only a short configuration to add a new device to the system. The measurement data is transferred on the network and stored in a database on the server. The system has been designed in the way that the measurement results can be seen on a simple web browser. It does not matter, whether you are in the office, in the laboratory or on the road, you can access the server from any place, if both your device and the server is connected to the internet.

The web-based dashboard automatically saves your settings you made on it, therefore you will get back the same charts when you come back again after closing the webpage, until you delete the cache of your browser. If you find something interesting in the measurement results, you can simply select these data to a new, separated page where you can see the data in details. If you need further analysis, you can use the attached desktop program which can apply several filters on the selected data. If you want you can even declare your own filters. You can also share the measurement results with your colleagues by sending them the saved image of the chart, the downloadable semicolon separated measurement file or simply giving them the special URL that you can find in your browser’s address bar.

In my work I have tested the system on real measurements made with a smart lamp where a mobile phone acts as an intermediary between the embedded system of the lamp and the database server. It was able to visualize several well-known phenomenon in the field of using limited energy source. It can be seen on the measurement results, that the output voltage of the battery is the function of the actual load and charge. It has been also captured that if a voltage regulator is applied between the battery and the consumer, the voltage that can be measured on the connectors of the consumer will be the same while the operating conditions of the voltage regulator are met. The equation for power has been also proved, that states the power is the result of the actual voltage multiplied with the value of the current.